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Why is it that so many of the teams that were supposedly at or over the cap can find ways to land FA's, but we can do nothing?

Signing the Josn's is mandatory, unless a better deal comes along. That's not enough though. We absolutely need more help in the C/PF rotation and better shooting. If we stand pat, we will have a season similar to last, maybe a little better. Sign a Diop or other quality addition and we could vault to the top echelon of the East. What's to think about?

This team is poised. We need owners and a GM that are ready to do what it takes to move to the next levels.

I won't bring up the coaching situation now.

Because until we find out what the Joshes are worth and lock them up, we don't know how much $$$ we can spend on FA's. I think we'll see a little more activity once we match an offer for them.

That's not the vision that I have. We sign a FA or two first, then the Josh's. We go over the cap, but not into the luxury tax. We can go over the cap to sign ours. If we sign ours first, it's a different story.

we're already close to the cap so there aren't many high or even mid tier free agents that we can get. the low tier free agents are going to be around anyway so there isn't a real reason to go after them now. any also, the openings in our roster are pretty far down (a backup SG that would get 12 min a night at best and a backup big that prob wont be good enough to take zaza's spot in the rotation.

we're locked with either youth or a vet at the 1,2,3,4, and 5 spots. and we already have a legit backup 1,3, and 4/5 also. and if you include solomon jones, and mario west (who might just end up being that backup 2) and you see why we don't have a real need to be agressive. the good thing is however that because we are already so stable in terms of players, it makes it that much more important that we keep our pieces.

If J-Rich and Rio can continue to progress, they could be two very cheap solutions to getting some depth off the bench.

tbhawksfan wrote:That's not the vision that I have. We sign a FA or two first, then the Josh's. We go over the cap, but not into the luxury tax. We can go over the cap to sign ours. If we sign ours first, it's a different story.

We have more than $51M in guaranteed salaries, and with Joshes' cap holds and MLE, we are already over the cap. If the cap is set at 58.5M, the only solution to get more than the MLE (5.5 to 5.8M, don't know yet) would be to refuse all exceptions (MLE, BAE) and renounce to rights on both Joshes, so be unable to match an offer and going over the cap to re-sign them). We would only have 7.5M to sign them and other players, so it has no sense at all.

So we have our MLE to get new player(s) and the rights on both Joshes, and using MLE now or after signing both Joshes to extension doesn't change anything, except that some F.A. won't be F.A. anymore if we wait too long.
But there's not so much guy we could had for the MLE or less, and as long as there are teams being contender and offering MLE, or other teams with cap space able to to offer more than the equivalent of a MLE, I don't see so much players wanting to come here, especially without knowing the exact future of the team (will the Joshes be there,...).

Maybe a guy like Diop would see ATL as a better team if he's sure that both Joshes will be with the team, and if there's no guaranty at this moment, he would have not be interested to sign here.

Meanwhile, as said in another thread, if there was a possibility to sign a guy like Maggette for the MLE before the Joshes, I would consider it, even if that would mean (for me) we would have to explore immediate or future trade (or sign-&-trade) for at least one of Marvin/Childress to free some playing time for Maggette and get help on other positions.